Writing and self-publishing eBooks has been a fun, prospering experience for me.
I want to help ease your self-publishing journey by laying out 3 simple steps to write and ship these suckers.
I filmed an HD video explaining the steps in detail.
Watch as I discuss:
These 3 steps are practical, helpful and lay the foundation for writing and self-publishing your first eBook. The big challenge I faced was keeping things simple. Overthinking the process is a common stumbling block you need to address if you want to kill it – in a good way – on the eBook side of things.
1: Write What You Know and Get Practical
I wrote and self-published over 100 eBooks on Amazon Kindle because I wrote what I knew and created practical, step by step, simple guides for readers who craved blogging tips.
I also tossed in other niches I knew well, like the travel niche, digital nomad niche, the make money online niche and I added a few entertaining eBooks covering my travel tales too.
Why?
I love writing about these topics. I know these topics inside-out. The words flowed freely.
Writing practical tips themed eBooks gives my readers the “how to” steps or tips they crave to solve their problems. Or to live their dreams.
Take the simple, clear, direct route. Don’t bog yourself down with endless research trying to find, pinpoint and flesh out a user need. Focus instead of following your passion and creating practical tips to help your readership.
If you have little experience in your niche, start learning! Blogging newbies, you can write and self-publish an eBook within weeks or a few months if you commit 100% to learning and studying your niche.
2: Google for Formatting
Or, simply refer to my guest post on Blogging Tips:
5 Steps for Writing and Formatting Amazon eBooks
I had to add this tip because I know how this process of formatting eBooks for Amazon intimidates most bloggers. Goodness knows I piddled in my blogging pantaloons for eons before I pulled the trigger, did my research and found out how to easily format eBooks for Amazon Kindle.
Use Google to find formatting tips. Or reference my guest post link 2 paragraphs above these words. Get the 411 on formatting to move forward with clarity and confidence.
3: Build Your Reader Base through Blog Commenting and Guest Posting
This is where I mucked things up for a minute.
I obsessed over doing free giveaways to promote my eBook. Sure I boosted downloads and eBook reviews but in the long run, I missed opportunities to both generate sales on my eBook release dates and to substantially grow my reader base through guest posting and blog commenting.
Free giveaways work OK if you have a huge email list or monstrously large blog following. But if you have few subscribers or a solid but not gargantuan following, guest post on niche blogs and comment on niche blogs, like the dickens, to grow your reader base.
I can be spotted in roughly 40 million places at once in the blogging niche because I guest post and blog comment freely. Meaning I grow my reader base regularly. Meaning I sell more eBooks now and position myself to sell even more ebooks in the future.
Feel free to do a free giveaway when you launch your eBook on your blog and when you email the freebie to your list but I’d focus most of my attention on guest posting and blog commenting to build your eBook readership. Cut the free giveaway at 1 day. Boost sales while you increase your exposure.
Your Turn
What tips can you add to this list?